Thursday, January 9, 2014

Business - Yeah!

My company is still not registered :(.

My partner ran into some problem while endorsing. Hope a solution can be found soon.

Anyway, there is break-through for my GIMP software today! I finally know how to sketch!

  1. Filters, Artistic, Photocopy
  2. Colors, Threshold, then adjust it.
  3. Then use white paint and remove those dirty spots and make the sketch cleaner.
  4. Next step is to use the original image again, duplicate and go to Colors, Posterize. This is for applying shading, which is very important for my cap designs.
  5. Next step we go back to Threshold again and adjust the Posterized layer.
  6. One very useful step is to flatten images into just one layer, when your layers start piling up. Of course, remember to save into a different file first before you regret. From there on, it is easier to make the image cleaner and also to change color.

Yeah!

Anyway, for better description, go to the below video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtQohJi9Mkc


Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Business - Business

Got things happening pretty quick.

Got a partner to register as LLP. Limited Liability Partnership. Its a new form of entity. Partners are protected from any losses being personal. If someone sues the company, the plaintiff can only take whatever is in the company. Not my house, my money, or my guitars. I actually thought that if I get sued, I will pull out the money quickly and pay myself as a salary.

At the moment, I had already registered my company name to the government, which cost $168. Now I am waiting for my partner to endorse it. Not sure if the government will still reject it. If rejected, I waste around 10 USD on domain name, and I also don't know what will happen to the S$168 I paid. Just hope all goes well. I am concerned it will be rejected because it might contain an offensive word in the company name. Anyway, I use namecheap.com to book my company name. It is very user friendly, and dirt cheap compared to others.

It feels good to see me appointing myself as a manager. It is really a totally different feeling. You see yourself as someone who takes charge of something, which have the chance of being pretty big. The road ahead might be bumpy, and I hope I challenge it strongly. It should be a life-changing experience.

Once the company is registered, hopefully by tomorrow, next up will be the real deal. Creating the products, liaising with manufacturers in China, and getting it into the hand of customers. It is a very unforeseeable and uncertain road ahead. But if I never try, I will never know. I am making something that I really want to see in this world, something that I am frustrated about not being able to find. So I become the solution to this problem. There is no turning back, and I will let things unfold itself. It will be a test for me, and a prove for me to be something. Whatever happens, it is not an end, but it will be a great experience. I feel more alive now.

Once again, I find comfort in this song. The words are really encouraging, and makes me feel easier with risks. It is the song many Chinese businessmen like. I understand why, even though it makes me feel very uncle, hahaha.


Monday, January 6, 2014

Business - Gimp again

I am starting to like this software.

Today I try to get quotes from China regarding my product. The sample is freaking expensive (USD 80), but I hope my bulk order will not be. If not it will kill my dreams of starting the business.

Back to the software, I learnt some more things today. One of the useful skill I can learn is to turn any photo into a cartoon. It will be super useful to my designs, and there will be endless things I can do if I can learn it well.

Anyway, about some things that I learnt:

  • When I use Free Select tool, I am unable to get rid of the dotted lines. And when that is on, I cannot do any other things like Brush or Pencil. Solution : Click on Rectangle Select tool and then click on the image.
  • When it comes to photo editing, GIMP arranges the top bar in order (below).When editing photos, go to Colors. Most basic feature to edit will be to use Brightness & Contrast. Another important feature is Threshold, though I have not use it yet. After Colors, go to Filters to add special effects.
Below is a video about what awesome thing GIMP can do, even though it is using Photoshop.




Sunday, January 5, 2014

Business - More knowledge bout GIMP

Learn many more things from watching youtube videos and trying it out myself.

  • To resize an image, go to 'Scale'
  • Fuzzy tool is one of the most amazing tools. If it don't work, remember to right-click the layer and 'Add alpha channel'
  • To add new image, copy it, and paste in GIMP.
  • If image is bigger than the checker background, go to Image, Fit Canvas size to Layers

Business - Gimp super basic

I am thinking of setting up a business.

It should be low capital, and it is also good to at least try to own a business once in my lifetime. I will never know if I will be good in it. The business I am thinking of is weekend and online based, so I can still keep my silly job to keep my main income flowing in. 

So for now, I have 2 other hope of having additional income, Forex and Business. For Business posts, I will put the word 'Business' in front of the title.

My business require me to use a software, Gimp. It is like Adobe Photoshop, but a free version of it. I had spent some time playing around with it today. The below is the most basic and important step to do, after you installed it. Which is to set it up for an easier interface. My current Gimp is version 2.8.
  1. Go to Tools, New Toolbox
  2. Drag it wide, and you can see 'You can drop dockable dialogs here'
  3. Go to Windows, Dockable Dialogs, click Tool Options
  4. Drag Tool Options into the Dockable Dialogs area
  5. Go to Windows, Dockable Dialogs, click Layers
  6. Drag Layers into the Dockable Dialogs area
Wah La~ you have a neat GIMP interface with only 2 windows.

Friday, January 3, 2014

631 - Smashed again

The below 2 trades also closed out.

EUR/AUD - Sell 1,000.00 EUR/AUD.fx @1.51348

This was previously my most profitable trade, earning me $40+.

GBP/NZD - Sell 1,000.00 GBP/NZD.fx @1.97932



Strong rejection from the Resistance Zone. On a positive note, I guess my Stop-Loss saved me some money. I will monitor the next few days to see how it turns out. So that I can learn if I set my Stop-Loss too narrowly.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

669 - My Forex feels like Manchester United

Manchester United lost again in the league early in the morning.

It feels like my Forex today, which went from 748 in noon to 669 tonight. I feel that I have to be as resilient as Moyes, even after getting punched by results over and over again.


I really feel for this man. I am angry and disappointed as Manchester United is used to winning. It is not anyone's fault if they are unable to do things the way many people expect. What you can only do in tough times is to keep trying, until eventually someone decides that you do not.

I have 7 trades remaining.

I think my NZD/CHF closed out around 2:30pm today.

From the looks of the graph, it does not seem to have a very obvious support line. I think I went for the sell. The most obvious support lines are usually those that are the lowest point of the graph.

As for the remaining 7 trades, I adjusted some of the Stop-Losses. How I do it is by imagining that the losing trade makes a comeback. I need to give it enough space for the u-turn. If it exceeds my imagined u-turn limit, then the trade to me is a lost one.